


Brown and Blue

by sapphire_child



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-21
Updated: 2008-08-21
Packaged: 2019-01-22 22:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12491852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphire_child/pseuds/sapphire_child
Summary: Between one adventure and the next Rose chances across an unguarded moment with the Doctor. Slight shippy tendencies, lots of banter and fluff with a smidgen of foreshadowing and angst.





	Brown and Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Bring on the feedback! Please, I welcome it with open arms! I’ve been freaking out about this story for far too long =P

It’s only in the rare moments of complete and utter exhaustion that Rose really sleeps anymore – there’s far too much out there in time and space alike for her to see to just sleep away her life like she once would’ve done. The fact that time is pretty much at a standstill within the TARDIS doesn’t really help her sleeping patterns either.

Back home she would automatically model her sleeping habits around whoever she was with but the Doctor doesn’t do much sleeping (if any at all) so she’s constantly in a state of flux. Until of course they land on some far off world and time starts to sweep them along once again. It’s impossible to gauge hours and days and weeks so Rose has taken to accounting for the time passed by the number of adventures she and the Doctor have together.

The other way she tries to keep track is by the amount of outfits that she’s worn. She can’t rely on the Doctor for that either because since his regeneration he’s only worn his brown pinstriped suit with the long tan coat over the top. She has to admit that it suits him (even if she misses his old leather jacket) but she’s not entirely sure how exactly he manages to keep it so immaculate and well pressed. Especially considering how long he’s been wearing it and the amount of manic running about he does...

In actual fact, she’s never seen him change his clothes – he changed jumpers occasionally in his last body but never in front of her. The same was true now – he changed his shirt and tie sometimes but never when she was around. Come to think of it, she thought with a frown, with the exception of when he regenerated and she and her mother wrestled him out of his old, oversized clothes and into Howard’s pyjamas she hasn’t ever really seen him in anything less then a full set of clothes.

Granted, when he regenerated she had been a bit too preoccupied with the thought of him dying on her to really get a good look at his new body. But really, she’s quite fascinated by it, and not just because he’s a lot younger this time around. Well...maybe a little bit because of that. Mostly it’s because he doesn’t (and never has) looked like an alien.

She’s certain there must be something of his anatomy that isn’t the same as hers – apart from his second heart of course. But he’s never mentioned anything else and...well he just looks so _normal_. He’s tall and lean, maybe even a little gangly and topped off by that ridiculous cloud of brown hair and a smattering of freckles on his face but still just...well normal.

Then comes the day that she wakes up from a rare snooze and decides to go peruse the TARDIS wardrobe for something that she can dress herself up in for fun while the Doctor decides where they’ll go next. For a girl like Rose who’s always loved clothes but never had the opportunity to swish about in anything much fancier than a cocktail dress the wardrobe is like a dream – a treasure trove of dress ups with everything from bonnets to vinyl boots. She had spent indeterminable amounts of time in there between adventures twirling about in Edwardian finery or zipping herself into futuristic fashions made of living fabric that sucked and squeezed until your waist was half its usual size and you could hardly breathe.

Sometimes the Doctor came and watched her, grinning from one of the spiral stairwells or rummaging enthusiastically through the racks and shelves with her. But despite all her teasing that he never tried anything on and the amount of ridiculous hats she plopped on top of his head, he never once tried anything on himself.

“Oh no, it’s much more fun to just watch you,” he would grin as she peered at him through a row of corsets. “You’re like a kid in a candy store. Well,” he amended. “More like a teenage girl in a dress shop with an unlimited amount of money but still...”

“Don’t you get bored with the same suit?” she wondered even as she dove into a box of feather boas and fur stoles. “There’s gotta be something else in all this stuff that fits you...”

“Oh probably,” he flopped down next to her, plucking a handsome mink stole from the box and draping it around her shoulders. “I just can’t be bothered going through it all again,” he stroked the stole absently, running long fingers through the soft fur and Rose grinned at the glazed expression on his face. “Took me long enough to find one outfit.”

After being so glib for so long about his clothes, Rose was more than a little surprised to hear the sound of rattling clothes hangers coming from the wardrobe when she found her way through the labyrinth of TARDIS corridors. It was unusual for him to be in there without her and she was instantly curious as to what he was doing.

How she managed to sneak up behind him she would never know but as she padded into the main level and around the spiral staircase, Rose suddenly found herself frozen at the scene before her.

The Doctor had brought together a collection of miscellaneous items of clothing including what looked like a variety of jackets, shirts and ties as well as trousers and shoes. His usual shirt had been discarded in favour of a crisp white one with small black buttons that he was currently doing up. And he was staring at his reflection with a scary amount of concentration.

“You know,” he said, making her jump until she realised that he was actually speaking to himself. “I don’t know why I even bothered – I’ve always hated this shirt.” Shaking his head he undid the shirt buttons with a deftness that had Rose drawing in a surprised breath as he tossed it back onto the pile and then turned back to the full length mirror that she herself had primped in on more than one occasion. He put his hands on his narrow hips and let out a loud huff of air, appraising his naked torso with a stern face.

Worried that he might see her reflection in the corner of the mirror, Rose shifted slightly so that she was in the shadow of the stairwell but really she needn’t have bothered because the Doctor had become completely and rather magnificently distracted by his own reflection. She had to work to fight back a giggle as he swivelled slowly from side to side, his eyes curiously raking over his body – but the seriousness on his face and the ringing silence was enough to keep her quiet for now.

She had caught him looking at his reflection a couple of times since his regeneration but it had been ages now and she’d thought that he had gotten used to his new body. Apparently he hadn’t. She’d never seen him so utterly focused on something before – usually he’d make a running commentary with whatever he was doing. Right now however, it seemed that he was far too focused on the lean sinews holding him together to say a word. As she watched him he flexed his elbows and rolled his shoulders forwards and backwards before rotating his thin wrists – appraisingly she thought.

Rose hesitated a moment longer to watch him, to let her gaze linger on this indecent expanse of pale, bare skin. She was surprised to see just how lean this new incarnation of her Doctor was. He was so thin that she could clearly make out the angular jut of bone beneath the skin of his back, every knobble on his spine evident and accounted for, his shoulder blades sticking out like a pair of wings. From her vantage point on the stairs she could also see the mole on his back that he had gotten so excited about having when he had first regenerated...

And with that thought she suddenly came crashing back to herself and blurted out his name.

“Doctor?”

His alert brown eyes suddenly snapped into focus on her reflection in the corner of the mirror and from there they widened almost comically.

“Rose?” he yelped, swinging around. His hands jerked awkwardly, apparently unsure of whether he should cover himself up or not as she circled around the stairs to meet him hesitantly. “How long have you been...?”

“Not long,” she said and he relaxed a fraction before she continued her sentence with; “Long enough to see you checking yourself out though.”

“Well,” he said, somewhat embarrassed but trying his best to cover it up by glancing down at his bare arms and shrugging. “Haven’t had much of a chance to really get a good look at myself this time round so...” he reached down surreptitiously for his usual shirt. “Can’t really blame me for wanting to know what I look like can you?”

“Looks more like you’re playing dress ups to me,” Rose teased him, toeing the pile of clothes at his feet as he buttoned himself up hurriedly. “What’s with all the clothes?”

“Well you were...asleep,” the Doctor said, tucking his shirt in absently. “And I ran out of things to fix but I didn’t want to wake you so...I started poking about for something to do and I ended up in here.”

“In here doing...what exactly?”

“Just seeing if I wanted to try something different for a change,” the Doctor plucked a blue jacket out of the pile and draped it over his shoulders, waggling his eyebrows appraisingly at her. “What d’you think? There’s a pair of tailored trousers that match the jacket somewhere in here...it’d go nice with the red Converse I found actually! Very snazzy.”

“I like your brown pinstripes better,” Rose plucked the blue jacket from his shoulders and hung it up neatly before fossicking for his usual jacket and tie. “Matches your eyes,” she continued as she straightened up, grinning when she saw the state of his shirt. “You might want to uh, re-button that shirt. You’ve missed a few holes.”

“Oh. Have I?” he quickly remedied this and then reached out for his tie but Rose batted his hands away and looped it around his neck instead.

“I got it.”

After a moment of strained silence between them in which she knotted his tie, Rose frowned up at the Doctor, one eyebrow raised. “What’s up your goat?”

“Just not used to being exposed so unexpectedly to a lady friend,” he said teasingly but he still looked slightly flustered all the same.

“You don’t have to make such a fuss about it,” Rose chided him as she straightened his tie and collar fussily. “It’s not like I saw you starkers or anything.”

“You might as well have,” the Doctor muttered. When Rose’s lips quirked with suppressed mirth however he quickly grew defensive. “Don’t you laugh at me Rose Tyler! A man has a right to some modesty and...”

“Well that automatically excludes you doesn’t it?” Rose teased. “’Cos you’re not really a man.”

“Well...no,” the Doctor amended but then a wicked grin blossomed on his face. “I’m _so_ much more than a man.”

“And just as modest as you said,” Rose muttered, trying not to grin.

“Can’t help it if I’m brilliant now can I?” the Doctor grinned and slipped his jacket on again before offering her his arm. “Well. Now that the Sleeping Beauty has _finally_ awoken from her slumber shall we depart for the New World?”

“Where are we going?” Rose asked, eyes shining as she linked arms with him.

“What about Arrakis? Brilliant place Arrakis – bit desolate but amazing, beautiful. There’s no surface water anywhere on the whole planet. It’s all desert – miles of sand dunes as far as you can see. Some rocks but mainly just sand and sun – brilliant place to get a tan. Or, you know, sun stroke.”

“Does anything live there then?” Rose asked, perplexed at the thought of a planet made entirely of sand.

“Oh yes – desert tribes and sandworms. They travel from rock to rock, live in caves – the tribes that is. They’re nomads, survive off hidden water stashes underneath the rocks. Huge underground caverns, all filled with these _ginormous_ lakes.”

Rose pulled a face at the word ‘underground’. “Wouldn’t want to be claustrophobic would you? Living in caves. What if there was an earthquake or something?”

“Oh they happen all the time,” the Doctor said glibly. “The sandworms can wipe out whole tribes at a time and...” at the alarmed look on Rose’s face he stopped abruptly. “Just a quick visit then eh? I’ll see if I can’t get us there at night time – its beautiful then. Absolutely freezing cold of course but the sand all goes blue and silver in the moonlight and the sandworms make these absolutely brilliant electrical storms that fill up the whole horizon with light...”

“Well as far as I’m concerned we can go anywhere you want,” Rose grinned. “Just so long as you don’t wear that blue jacket. I wouldn’t recognise you!”

“Well better the blue jacket than half naked and all exposed like before,” the Doctor grinned back. “Even _I’d_ freeze on Arrakis if I wasn’t careful. But then again,” he mused. “Blue wouldn’t really be a good colour choice for Arrakis at night time – if I got lost there you’d never find me again.”

“Maybe you should just stick with the brown,” Rose advised him and the two of them stepped over the threshold together, arm in arm and grinning.


End file.
